Childhood Innocence
by AriTeir
Summary: Au. What if Mutant abilities developed before adolescence and a man known only as Logan, running from his unknown past ends up raising two certain little girls. Eventual Loro, Kurtty and Romy.
1. Chapter 1

Childhood Innocence

_Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution, Beauty and the Beast (Technically they're both owned by Disney now...) or Goosebumps._

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Rogue felt like a bug. Her left cheek was squashed up against the fogged window of the cab and the applied pressure of it caused the condensation to start dripping down onto her shoulder and making her cheek sticky with moisture. And leaning heavily on her right shoulder wedging her body tightly against Rogue's was her 'sister' Kitty. Curled up on the seat like her namesake in the only position she could manage without being squashed by the numerous bags and suitcases scattered across the back of the cab. Logan's leather jacket was draped across her like a blanket. Rogue shifted down in her seat in an effort to get more comfortable Kitty groaned softly at the movement her button nose scrunching up in a fashion that looked almost rabbit like. Rogue stilled and with a sigh pressed her forehead back against the window, Logan would not be happy if she woke Kitty up. He was outside in the drizzle arguing with the taxi driver who was trying to short-change him.

A few dollars may not have made that bigger deal to most people but Rogue knew that Logan didn't have them to spare. Kitty had counted their money out at the Information kiosk at the train station while Logan and Rogue leafed their way through the guide to the town's hotels. They had enough to spend one night at the cheapest in town and the taxi ride over maybe enough for a meal the next day. Rogue knew they would have had enough for two nights at the hotel if it wasn't for her; the only reason they had had to take a taxi across town was because Logan didn't want her walking in the rain. She'd just gotten over her last bout of flu she didn't need to catch something else while her Immune system was weak. Of course Rogue's immune system was weak practically all winter.

But the last bout of flu had been a bad one. Rogue had been too far out of her mind with fever for most of it to remember anything beyond a couple of hazy details. She remembered the hotel bed she had all to herself was lumpy and that Kitty had to ask housekeeping for more blankets because she was shivering so much. She remembered throwing up all over the new blankets Kitty had gotten but what she remembered the most was being plucked out of her mound of blankets by Logan in the middle of the night and being taken to the hospital.

Rogue knew she would have had to have been really sick for Logan to go to a hospital. Kitty had filled in the blanks for her later. Apparently around ten at night she had started throwing up again even though the only thing she had consumed was flat lemonade. She had thrown up all over the extra blankets Kitty had been sent to get from the housekeeping who were of course no longer at the hotel, so the shivering started again. It wasn't until midnight when she started muttering and raving that Logan decided to go to the hospital. So he had wrapped her up in an old Army Issue Trench coat, told Kitty to bundle up and get their things together and the three were off into the night.

Kitty admitted she made the whole thing sound like some grand adventure when in actual fact it had been pretty boring. She and Logan had spent two hours sitting in the E.R with Rogue draped across the Canadian mans lap still muttering under her breath. Then Logan had to convince the Triage nurse and the rest of the on duty staff that his daughter had a rare skin condition he couldn't pronounce and they would have to wear examination gloves while treating her. Then they were all shuffled into a curtain room, Rogue got put into bed a couple of doctors wearing Latex gloves took blood samples and because she was well for all intensive purposes unconscious instead of making her swallow pills and drink medicine the Nurses gave her an I.V line.

And there they stayed until Logan overheard some of the Doctors talking about the suspicious circumstances in which Rogue had been bought to the hospital the following morning. He deemed Rogue to be well enough by then but just in case got Kitty to memorise the labels on her I.V drip and go find the medication it listed. Pocketing a bottle of high fever reducers and other such medication Logan lifted Rogue from her bed and re wrapped her in the trench coat and when Kitty returned to the room, the pockets of her pink snow jacket bulging with stolen medication the three left and were on the train to wherever they were now.

Rogue didn't bother learning the names of the towns she Logan and Kitty drifted through, they were never there for longer than two weeks, a month at the most. They had to keep moving Logan said. So that was how the three lived they would arrive, Logan would find whatever work was going until they scrounged up enough money to move on to the next town and start the cycle again.

Rogue turned her head away from the window as the door across from her opened to Logan, a halo of drizzle trapped in the beam of a street light behind him.

"Think ya can move without waking the Half Pint?" He asked

"No" Rogue drawled feeling slightly envious of Kitty's ability to sleep anywhere. Logan made a sound that coming from any other man would have been a sigh as he lifted a denim clad knee onto the seat and leant into the cab resting a hand on Kitty's shoulder.

"Wakey, wakey Half Pint" He said shaking the young girl gently. Kitty let out a groan and scrunched up her nose again but insisted on burying her head deeper into Rogues shoulder.

"Come on kid we ain't got all night" Logan insisted. Blearily Kitty opened her baby blue eyes.

"Mr Logan?"

"The one and only get yer bag"

Kitty unfolded herself and blindly groped for the tatty pink suitcase laying on the floor of the cab that held all her possessions. Upon finding it the young girl secured her hand around the masking tape enforced handle and climbed out of the cab over Rogues suitcase. An old leather thing that looked like it had been around since before the second world war.

Kitty Pryde was a small girl. No that was incorrect, saying someone was small gave off connotations of disproportion a better term to describe Kitty Pryde was _miniature. _Everything about her was tiny, at six years old she looked like she had just turned three, in a third world country, no less as the girl didn't have a scrap of fat on her. _That_ had caused some interesting conversations over the years with nosy people who thought Kitty actually was three and pondered her lack of baby fat, something Logan highly doubted she had ever had even as a baby. Rogue wasn't much better, she may not have been as short for her age as Kitty was but she was just as thin.

Travelling the country trying to keep one step ahead of anti mutant sentiment and his unknown past wasn't the easiest thing to do and it was even harder when looking after two little girls but what else was Logan supposed to do? He certainly couldn't of left them the way he found them, on the streets outcast by their own families. Rogues parents hadn't waited until she mutated to be rid of her, she had spent her formative years in an orphanage that disposed of her the minute her mutation became apparent. Logan had found her wandering the streets in Mississippi wearing a pair of welding gloves, that were taped to her wrists so they wouldn't fall off. Kitty's story wasn't much better. Often Logan wondered who was better off, Rogue who's parents had never bothered with her or Kitty who's parents had waited until she was four and became a mutant to abandon her. Kitty Pryde had been born into a tight knit gated Jewish community (or Cult as Logan was inclined to believe) and when her ability to walk through things, or 'ghost' as Rogue had come to call it, developed Kitty was cast out, her parents were given the choice to go with her or stay. Logan had stumbled across her curled up outside the high fence that separated her previous home from the world. Kitty still talked in her sleep begging her parents to please let her back in, it was scary out here.

Grasping her pink suitcase firmly with both hands Kitty hurried out of the drizzle and into the Motels reception. Rogue grabbed her own suitcase along with Logan's and followed her. Both girls had been in so many motel receptions before they didn't even bother to take in their surroundings. Kitty dropped her suitcase by the door and ran up to the front desk standing on her tiptoes to see over it. Rogue rolled her eyes and nudged Kitty's suitcase out of the doorway with her foot while the younger girl jumped and braced herself against the desk so she could reach the service bell. She rang it as many times as she could before she lost her balance and slipped back down to the floor.

"Coming, coming" A voice rang from a back room separated from the reception by a bead screen, which made clacking noises as a middle aged woman with owlish glasses stepped through it. She ignored Rogue who was leafing her way through the pamphlets dedicated to the towns attractions and instead focused on Kitty who had put on her best 'cute' face complete with puppy dog eyes and an angelic smile.

"Hello Sweetie how can I help you" The woman asked leaning ever so slightly across the desk so she could see the little girl better.

"Hello" Kitty said giving a wave.

"I'd like a three bed unit please with a kitchenette and full bathroom please" She continued professionally reaching for the clip purse she always kept on a string around her neck and drawing out a roll of notes. Standing on her tiptoes she placed the wad of cash on the desk and slid it as far as she could reach.

"Umm Sweetie I'm afraid you have to be a little older for me to be able to give you that" The woman frowned, she had had plenty of experience with under-age girls wanting to rent rooms in the past, of course they had all had boys with them and hadn't been quite so under-age. What sort of three year old asked to rent a motel room and so politely?

"Our Dad's just outside, he sent us to get a room key" Rogue explained coming up to the desk.

"Look I'm sorry but he'll have to come inside and get it himself, I can't legally give a key to any under-age persons " The woman announced with a kind apologetic smile.

"Kitty stay with the bags" Rogue ordered Kitty scampered over to where Rogue had dumped her and Logan's suitcases. The older girl snatched the roll of money off the desk and headed for the door.

Logan was standing in the awning next to it out of the rain smoking a cigar. Three black plastic trash bags lay at his feet, one contained the last vestiges of the tinned food the three had been living off for the past month and the last two were filled with everything that wouldn't fit in the suitcases. The bags were too cumbersome to dragged around any more than they needed too and Logan sure as hell wasn't going to leave them unattended.

"Ya got the key?" He asked. Rogue shook her head and offered the cash up to him.

"You're gonna have to do it, Kitty an' me are 'under-age'" she explained crossing her arms across her chest stubbornly. Logan pocketed the money and pressed the end of his cigar into his forearm leaving an angry red mark on the skin. Rogue watched in fascination as almost as soon as it had been inflicted the wound disappeared.

"Look after the bags willya Stripes" and with that he made his way indoors.

He returned barely two minutes later carrying his and Rogues suitcases Kitty close behind him with her own suitcase and her left hand grasped firmly around a key with a piece of yellow plastic attached to it reading in big black letters '25'.

"Trade ya" Rogue grinned springing up from where she had been seated on one of the black bags.

"Sure kid" Logan handed the two suitcases to her and picked up the three larger bags before the three set out in search of their room.

You would think with all the amount of time Kitty had spent in Motel rooms during the past two years of her life the novelty would have worn off, no such luck. The minute Logan had opened the door that led to what would be their living room for the next 'however long' and flicked on the lights Kitty had shot past him and headed strait to the kitchenette where she began to dig through the cupboards.

"They've got cereal cups! I get the Cocoa Pops!" She yelled brandishing a packet of four Kelloggs cereal cups that contained Cocoa Pops, Country Store, Crunchy Nut and Fruit'n fibre.

"What?! No you don't! You got them last time, it's my turn, Logan tell her!" Rogue cried also brushing past the older Mutant and into the unit.

"No it's not!"

"It is so ya little liar!"

"Am not you are!"

"Pipe down both of ya! If ya can't stop fightin' about it _I'm_ getting the Cocoa pops" Logan all but roared to be heard over the girls, who unfortunately both had voices that had a tendency to get alternatively whiny and shrieky when they were upset.

"Ain't it about time you two got ready for bed anyway?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. Kitty gently put the pack of cereal cups back into the cupboard secretly mourning her loss of cocoa pops and pouting at Rogue.

The unit only had one bedroom with two beds set up on either side of it, turns out the third bed Kitty had requested was a fold out one in the living room area. Kitty and Rogue placed their suitcases at the end of the bed they had claimed and began digging through them for their pyjama's before taking turns in using the bathroom that was just off their room and climbing into their beds.

"All right you two decent?" Logan's voice sounded from behind the door.

"Yeah"

""Yes Mister Logan"

The door creaked open and Logan entered the room Rogue switched the lamp sitting on the table in between her and Kitty's bed on as he turned off the main one.

"Here ya go Half Pint, thought ya might want this" Logan said offering a stuffed purple dragon to the young girl.

"Lockheed!" She cried happily sitting up to reach him. Lockheed was the only toy Kitty owned, as he was too big to fit in Kitty's suitcase he spent most of his time in one of the plastic bags along with other miscellaneous objects that wouldn't fit into any of the three suitcases. Logan knew Kitty couldn't sleep without him. Kitty set the Dragon down lovingly on the pillow next to her before settling herself under the covers.

"Can I have a bedtime story Mister Logan?" She asked sweetly.

"I dunno kid it's kinda late"

"Please!"

"All right, ya got one in mind?" Logan asked sitting down on the end of her bed. Kitty unsettled herself and rising to her knees crawled down the bed to her suitcase and pulling the Golden Books version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Logan took it out of her hands as she settled back down.

"Why am I not surprised? Don't ya know this book off by heart already?" He asked. Beauty and the Beast, especially the Disney version was Kitty's favourite story, she asked him to rent it for her whenever they got a unit with a VCR, she had found the book at the second hand shop for a quarter and had been asking Logan to read it to her ever since.

"Yeah, but I like it better when you read it"

"Fine. _Once upon a time in a faraway land..._"

"Also known as France Everyone knows Beauty and the Beast is set in France, that's why her name's Belle" Rogue cut in from her side of the room

"France is far away!" Kitty protested.

"Not to everyone! what if you live in Germany, then it's right next door"

"We're not in Germany so it _is _far away!"

"Whatever If I have ta listen ta that book one more time I am definitely gonna be ill!"

"So read somethin' else Stripes no ones stoppin' ya" Logan said defusing the situation before it could turn into another shrieking/whining match. Making a 'Humphing' noise in the back of her throat Rogue climbed out from under her own covers and pulled an old 'Goosebumps' book with a tattered spine out of her suitcase.

"..._and they lived Happily Ever After_" Logan finished closing the book and setting it down on the bedside table before standing up and pulling Kitty's blankets up to her neck making sure he didn't cover Lockheed's head.

"Time ta sleep Half pint." He said gently before turning to Rogue

"Lights out in fifteen minutes Stripes" Rogue nodded absently not raising her eyes from the book she was reading. Logan left the room leaving the door ajar. Kitty heard him setting up the fold out bed in the living room she wriggled down under the covers and after a couple of minutes of turning found a comfortable position she closed her eyes. Frowning she snapped them open again turning to Rogue

"Do you have to keep reading? The lights to bright, I can't sleep!"

"Yes, I'm up to the best part. Listen: _The Counts fangs glistened like pearls in the moonlight, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth..."_

"I'm not listening, I'm not listening!" Kitty screamed putting her hands over her ears.

"Ooh this parts got tons of blood!"

"Stop it Rogue!"

The door swung open to reveal a scowling Logan.

"Rogue what did I tell ya about picking fights? Especially with yer sister" He demanded Rogue snorted

"Yeah cause picking fights is something you _never _do and we're not even real sisters"

"Firstly Don't be a smart ass, ya know the rules..."

"_Do as I say not as I do_" Kitty and Rogue chorused, Logan nodded with a proud grin before continuing.

"Secondly, ya may not be real sisters but yer all the others got in this world so ya better learn ta look out for each other"

"But what about you Mister Logan we've got you don't we?" Kitty asked worry creeping into her voice, Logan felt his features relax.

"Yeah yer all ways gonna have me Half Pint. Okay time for little Kittens and Skunks to get some sleep " He said crouching down next to Kitty's bed and kissing her forehead, she propped herself up on her elbow to kiss his cheek before settling back down and wrapping her arms around Lockheed. Logan turned to Rogue taking the book out of her hands and placing it on 'Beauty and the Beast'. Admitting defeat and the loss of her extra reading time Rogue also lay back against her pillows as Logan ever so carefully kissed her hair covered scalp. She in return kissed the tips of her right glove and pressed them to his cheek.

"G'night girls" The gruff man said before flicking the lamp off, raising up and heading for the door.

"G'night Logan"

"Good night Mister Logan"

He cast a final look around the room as he quietly slid around the door, leaving it open just a crack as always.

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_STORY NOTES_

_Father: This story is inspired by the fatherl/daughter relationship that Logan has with Kitty and Rogue._

_Immunity: Those who have read my story 'Holy Matrimoy' will recognize my carrying on the Trait of Rogue having a weak Immune System due to contracting Glandular Fever at the age of seven._

_Short: Kitty Pryde has always been depicted as being well tiny through just about all of her incarnations._

_Backstory: I am well aware that Kitty's backstory may seem a bit unbelievable but I based it on an event described in an Autobiograhy by a woman who had grown up in a relegious cult in America, apparently a couple within the community had a son with Down syndrome and were 'encouraged' by the community leaders and elders to put him up for adoption outside the community._

_Goosebumps: I actually never read Goosebumps as a child, they were well Boyish and I had an overactive immagination (I still do) So what Rogue read aloud isn't an actual quote from any of the books_

_Anyway That's all for now, please excuse any spelling and Grammatical errors you come across. Feel free to tell me what you think I accept Critisim just please be constructive and polite. _

_Ari Out! _

And now on a completely unrelated note I present to you the Top Ten Reasons for Americans to Visit New Zealand as told by out Prime Minister John Key on The Late Show with David Letterman

10. Auckland Airport now has Cinnabon

9. We have the loosest slot machines in the Pacific Rim

8. It's only a convienant 20 hour flight away

7. It's like England without the attitude

6. Leno's on at 9 o'clock

5. Get the Whanau [family in Maori pronounced _fa now_] together Stay in a bach [what a beach house is called in the North Island in the South Island it's Crib] Crack open the Chilly Bin [Cooler] and slap on your Jandals [flip flops]

4. Visit in the next 30 days and I'll [John Key] pick you up from the Airport

3. 70% of our energy is geneated from renewable sources- they don't all have to be jokes you know

2. We drive on the left side of the road, like the British and Lindsay Lohan.

1. Unilke most of the world we still like Americans


	2. Chapter 2

Childhood Innocence

_I do not own X-men Evolution _

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Keeping up with Logan wasn't the easiest thing to do, which was probably a good thing overall considering that he spent his life on the run but it however wasn't a good thing when you were trailing behind him down a café lined street in some town you didn't even know the name of. Which was what Kitty was trying to do.

The large backpack she had slung over her shoulders probably wasn't helping. Well technically it wasn't a _large_ backpack it just appeared that way as all normal sized things did on Kitty. It was a bulky olive green thing that like most things in Logan's possession was army issue circa 1940 . It had more pockets and compartments than Kitty could imagine anyone ever needing and was currently filled with two cans of Spaghetti in tomato sauce that would be lunch. Kitty had selected them carefully from the black plastic bag that morning, choosing the least dented tins she could find. One pocket contained all the complementary sachets of Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Sugar given out by the motel they had spent the night in. The Coffee was for Logan of course but the Sugar and Hot Chocolate were Kitty and Rogue's treat they loved dipping their fingers into the tiny packets and licking the granules off them. But the heaviest objects in the bag were Kitty and Rogue's school work.

One would think living on the run would mean a reprieve from things such as school and perhaps at one point in history that had been the case but that glorious era had ended with the invention of correspondence school. Which Kitty and Rogue were kind of, sort of, enrolled in. Their work was sent in monthly allotments across the Internet to an anonymous Email account Kitty had set up and could be printed from any library computer terminal at 10 cents a page. And when they had finished the allotted work they posted it back to the schools 'campus' in Washington D.C.

Kitty paused outside of a café with a striped awning that smelt of freshly roasted coffee and baked pastry and yanked the ancient straps of the bag down either side of her chest in an effort to stop the bag from slamming repeatedly into the back of her knee's as she walked.

"C'mon Half Pint" Logan called over his shoulder to the small girl.

"Wait up" Kitty cried keeping her hands secured around the straps to keep them from slipping back as she broke into a run.

"Why don't you catch up?" Rogue demanded, she was currently carrying what could be considered the 'family's' most expensive possession in one of the black plastic bags. An old acoustic guitar with a mother of pearl inlay that Logan had picked up at some pawnshop at some point in time. Thing was so worn it probably wouldn't fetch any more than fifty bucks if they were to sell it on despite the mother of pearl but that wasn't why it could be considered so valuable. The reason Logan hadn't pawned the old thing on again was Rogue could play it. She could _really _play it. Maybe she just had a natural talent for music, maybe she had touched someone who had learnt the guitar and absorbed the ability from there but wherever it came from Rogue's ability to play the guitar was invaluable as whenever Logan couldn't find a job (something that was happening more and more often, gone were the days, he said, when you could just show up and offer your hand at whatever needed doing) She and Kitty would end up finding a street corner somewhere and Rogue would play until her fingers bled while Kitty put on her 'cute' face and collected money. Begging was illegal, Busking wasn't.

"I'm _trying_ but this bag is so heavy and my shoes are pinchy!" Kitty yelled her run turning into something that resembled more of a hop as she tried to move in a way that would keep her shoes from rubbing against her feet as much as possible.

"Thought you said those shoes'd last ya another two weeks" Logan said with a frown

"That was six months ago!" Kitty cried finally reaching the two older mutants who had paused at the street corner and were waiting for a row of cars to pass so they could cross the street onto the next block. Logan cast a critical look over Kitty's tattered sneakers, they definitely looked too small for her, huh, felt weird saying that.

"Well congrats Half Pint, ya finally outgrew something"

"Really" Kitty's face lit up as she glanced between her shoes and Logan ecstatic that finally at least something about her was growing.

Kitty would never admit it to anyone (mainly because she knew Rogue would tease her for it) but sometimes she was terrified she would never grow. That she would spend the rest of her life looking like the China dolls she and Rogue had seen lined up behind the counter at one of the many charity shops they had visited. They had all been so perfect with blue glass eyes and pale cheeks dressed in frilly Victorian dresses. The old woman working at the shop had told the girls that none of the dolls were for sale, so they just sat there held up on metal stands. Kitty had nightmares, some nights where she was one of those dolls, like a reverse Pinochio, a real girl turned into a puppet.

"I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing" Kitty sang skipping alongside Logan one hand still clutching the strap of the backpack to keep it from slipping down and the other firmly grasped around Logan's so she didn't fall behind.

"Just ya feet!" Rogue said rolling her eyes from where she was walking on the other side of Logan, his hand enclosed around her gloved one.

"Play nice Stripes" The gruff man ordered giving her arm a playful tug.

"Feet count" Kitty protested peering around Logan's mass to poke her tongue out at Rogue.

"Goes fer you too, Half Pint" The Canadian man said also giving her arm a gentle yank. Kitty giggled and allowed Logan's tug to pull her into his leg. Logan gave a chuckle and draped an arm across her small form. Kitty pressed her cheek against the fabric of Logan's blue jeans so hard she could feel the ribbing imprint on her skin and ran a finger delicately along the seam.

Rogue slipped ahead of the two and made to kick a small stone of the pavement into a nearby mound of what had probably a few weeks ago been snow but more resembled something more akin to a dirt slushy. Her foot however skimmed over the piece of gravel and Rogue stumbled over her missed step. She quickly put her foot down again to stabilise herself but the worn soles of her boots did nothing to help on the wet pavement and she felt her her leg slipping out from under her. Rogue flailed her arms out in an effort to regain her balance but to no avail. She fell backwards but instead of landing on the pavement like she would have preferred Rogue fell on her butt into a pile of half melted slush that immediately set about soaking through the bottom of the oversized T-shirt that hung like a dress on her small figure and the seat of her woollen tights with freezing liquid

"Have a nice trip stripes?" Logan asked good humouredly coming up and offering a hand to her Rogue growled at him but accepted the hand up telling herself that it was only because she didn't want the black opera gloves that stretched up under the sleeves her t-shirt she was wearing getting wet. Kitty hopped over to them in her too-tight-shoes and Rogue felt a scowl etching itself on her face.

Make no mistake Rogue loved her 'sister'. Sure they argued a lot and were complete opposites on whatever spectrum you measured them on, but like Logan was always telling them they were family and family stuck together no matter what. So Rogue loved Kitty but sometimes the younger girl just didn't get it.

It wasn't like she didn't know how poor the 'family' was. Kitty was the one after all who carried their money in the clip purse around her neck, and the one who counted it out whenever the situation called for it, she was good with numbers. It was just she didn't seem to be able to grasp just how being poor worked. She complained when the only socks she had to wear were mismatched, she complained when her clothes had holes in them she complained that her shoes were pinchy. Almost completely unaware that everyone's socks were mismatched because every laundromat they'd ever been in had caused one half of every pair washed there to vanish, everyone had holes in their clothes and everyone had had pinchy shoes at some point and you didn't see them complaining did you?

Besides, Rogue thought with a bubble of spite drifting to the surface of her heart, her shoes were in way worse shape than Kitty's. But she _couldn't _complain to Logan about them, not when she had begged him to get them for her. They were pair of combat boots covered with straps and buckles, Rogue had fallen in love with the minute she came across them in a charity shop. They were three sizes to big for her, the leather was faux and poorly dyed and the treads were none existent. And normally all that would have been okay, quality was something you kind of learned to do without when money was tight and Rogue would have been happy to tuck the boots away in her suitcase until summer arrived. But then both her and Kitty's snow boots had been stolen from a hostel they had been staying in. Logan had been understandably pissed especially since he had paid extra to have a storage locker to put their belongings in, he had even made Kitty phase the storage key into the bed she and rogue were top and tailing in just to be on the safe side.

With her snow boots gone the only shoes Rogue had were her combat boots and they were hopeless in the snow. The faux leather wasn't water proof meaning the masses of tissues Rogue had stuffed into them so they would fit her feet better ended up getting soaked with freezing half melted snow, the dye ran when it was wet staining her toes a perpetual black and worst of all they still rubbed her feet.

It was a miserable day wherever they were. The sky was the colour of a light bulb before you tuned it on, a dull grey that looked like any colour that had previously existed there had been worn out after years of use. It reminded Rogue of one of the many songs Logan had used as lullabies for her and Kitty over the years.

_Don't your feet get cold in the winter time_

_Sky won't snow _

_and the sun won't shine_

_Hard to tell the night time from the day._

Nightmares and therefore lullabies had always been a part of the strange existence the three mutants shared together of course being that it was Logan doing the singing most of the songs Kitty and Rogue had been lulled to sleep with were not exactly the type most people would even consider using as a lullaby.

It hadn't taken Rouge long to figure out that the main industry of the town their were currently in was forestry, there were signs of it everywhere really, cafe's had their menu's painted in swirling colours on old sawmill wheels with blunted razors and there. It was in one such Cafe along the main street that the family were currently seated in. Discussing what to do next. They couldn't stay here obviously, if it were summer, sure not a problem Logan would have been able to find a job in an instant in a forestry town, but in Winter, the entire Industry was shut down for the Season.

There were some days when Logan really missed Canada. In Canada Winter's while harsh always offered their own seasonal work and while most of it was high risk, at least to anyone without a Healing Factor, the pay more than made up for it. But that wasn't an option. Rogue and Kitty didn't have passports and despite the fact that Logan had been more of a father to the girls than their own ones had been he wasn't their legal guardian. So understandably he liked to avoid Government departments along with anywhere else that required official documentation.

Maps and pamphlets lay spread out across the table they were sitting at covering about 90% of it's surface, leaving just enough room for the cup of coffee Logan had bought so they wouldn't get kicked out of the establishment.

"What about this town it has a Hydro Dam, You could work there right? Kitty asked repositioning herself onto her knees so she could reach across the table and point out a place on the map.

"Not without a background check, he couldn't" Rogue rolled her eyes. Anything that required a background check was as a rule discounted on account of Logan had no background.

Logan sighed and ran a hand down his face, he didn't know what they were going to do. Every town they had enough money to get too was either a forestry one or an Agricultural one and it was the wrong season for both of them. And that was not good news, not when he had a grand total of twenty dollars to his name and no way of earning more, nowhere to sleep, and only enough food to maybe last the week. Logan had managed to pull his 'Family' through some tough scrapes before but her feared that this time they were well and truly screwed.

And this belief was only strengthened when the smell of sweat, old leather, smoke and oddly enough mustard powder his his nose just before the bell hung just above the doorway rang and a tall broad shouldered man with a feral grin and dirty blonde hair that fell to his shoulders entered.

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_STORY NOTES_

_Correspondance school: Correspondance school is sort of like home school except that lessons are set by the Board of Education and are mailed out in monthly allotments and are sent back when completed . I put Rogue and Kitty in conrespondance because I figure they should have some sort of education._

_Desparado: this song lyrics I have used are from the Eagels song Deparado_

_Anyway That's all from me Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all. I apologuise for my poor spelling and punctuation, Please tell me what you liked, didn't like I accept Critism just please be constructive and polite_

_Ari Out_


	3. Chapter 3

Childhood Innocence

AKA I waited over half a year for this fic and all I got was this crappy chapter...sorry...

I do not own X-men Evolution

If Rogue had stuck around long enough to give the police who were called to the scene an eyewitness account of what had happened she would have told them that it was hard to believe that what had happened happened in all of ten minutes. Describing what had actually taken place would have been another problem as Rogue still wasn't entirely sure.

She remembered some things very clearly; the way Logan had stiffened and let out a growl when the strange man had entered. The smell of his coffee as it was knocked over and soaked slowing into the papers covering the table when the stranger lunged in an entirely animalistic fashion at Logan knocking him clean off his seat. The sound of people screaming and tables and chairs falling as the two literally brawled across every available surface. Logan yelling at her to take Kitty and run. The lump of fear that dropped into her stomach like a stone as this strange man stabbed his claw like fingernails into Logan's throat and tore at it, killing him, before turning to her and Kitty his golden eyes feral and perhaps even mad. Blinding pain in the back of her head as she was thrown aside into the wall. The feeling of absolute relief as Kitty phased just as the Stranger made to tear through her abdomen that turned to sickening horror when she couldn't stay intangible long enough and stopped phasing just as the claws were pulled from her, taking chunks of flesh with them.

Rogue certainly didn't remember taking off her gloves, but she must have because the next thing she knew was her families attacker was lying motionless in the wreckage of the café and she had grown fangs and fur. After that it was like being on Auto pilot, She knew what she was doing but she just felt so disconnected from it, the world around her seemed so distant and everything sounded like she was underwater. Even Kitty's cries seemed like they were echoing from the end of a tunnel. Rogue could barely register that it was her hands she was watching delicately but surely unclipping the snap buttons that did up the younger girls torn snow jacket and pushing serviettes against the wounds in her stomach. She noted in a strange calm sort of way that they were rather funny looking wounds, sort of finger shaped, almost like the effect of pushing your finger into a tub of play dough, only more jagged and there was blood. A lot of blood.

At some point Logan stopped being dead, like he always did. He might have said something to her Rogue wasn't sure, she was only dimly aware of him hastily pulling Kitty's torn, slightly blood soaked snow jacket around her and yanking the hood over her face to hide it. She just sat in the wreckage staring at Kitty with an unfocused gaze that didn't waver even when Logan left her line of sight and she didn't acknowledge him when he came back with the kitchens first aid kit which he gave to Rogue and the fire blanket which he wrapped not so much tightly but securely around Kitty's midsection.

And then they did what they always did, they ran.

Rogues first fully concious experience after the attack was her temporarily clawed feet pounding against the pavement at a speed she was certain went just beyond the realms of human capability with Logan running along side her Kitty cradled in his arms as gently as the circumstances allowed. Worry exploded in her stomach making her feel physically sick but then an iron resolve that wasn't quite hers kicked in telling her to run now and worry later. They had to get out of this town and somewhere safe. Fortunately there wasn't much town to get out of and it didn't take them long to reach the start of the forests that surrounded it.

The forest felt weird, Rogue noted in a way she would have been incapable of only that morning. It was too controlled, too quiet, too human, it wasn't a real forest at all. She didn't like it.

Logan didn't slow his pace as he began to expertly weave his way in between the trees and Rogue was only slightly surprised to find that she could follow him effortlessly. She considered taking off the snow jacket, it was baby pink and would stand out among the foliage but thought better of it. Don't leave anything behind instincts that weren't really hers screamed. Don't give anyone a way to find you. The people back in that nameless town they had seen what she had done, what Kitty had done and in Logan's case they had seen what he hadn't done; stayed dead. Rogue knew what happened when people found out you weren't normal, they hunted you, put you in cages. Like his father had done to him. Wait. That wasn't right, Rogue frowned, those weren't her memories. She shook her head violently as if the action could expel all the thoughts, memories, feelings and instincts that belonged to, Sabretooth, that's what everyone called her, him, from it. Focusing instead on putting one foot in front of the others and repeating to herself over and over in her head.

'I'm Rogue, I'm Rogue, I'm Rogue'.

She wasn't sure how long they ran for, the overcast lines of sky visible in between the straight rows of trees gave no indication of time . The only thing that suggested it had passed at all in this strange artificial forest was it was becoming increasingly harder for her to keep up with Logan and the world began to steadily dim around her. With every step a little bit more colour drained from her surroundings, the smell of the forest became softer and softer until it was impossible to differentiate anything else from the earthy sent of damp wood. The medical kit balanced in her arms got heavier and heavier.

The terrain she had been stumbling through became smoother and smoother as she fell further and further behind Logan. The only thing pushing her own now was pure adrenalin. Rogue looked up from her steady pace of her feet to Logan nearly a hundred paces ahead of her. Taking in her surroundings she realised they had departed from the artificial forest and were now travelling along a road. It was an old road, made of dirt that was barely visible beneath the vegetation that had conquered it in the years that it hadn't been in use.

The road led upwards at a steady pace and the terror that had previously been kept at bay by Sabretooth's iron will exploded in her chest making her feel sick. Where were they going did Logan know? Was Kitty going to be all right? Was she going to die? Rogue felt tears prickle in her eyes. She didn't want Kitty to die, sure they fought a lot and got on eachother's nerves but they were sisters and they had to stick together.

"Right kid far as we go fer now" Logan stopped suddenly, Rogue gratefully slowed behind him, her limbs felt like they were on fire and her lungs ached with each breath.

"Is Kitty all right" She asked shakily, Logan's face hardened, he looked suddenly ancient and very very tired. He sighed deeply

"She will be. Unconscious at the moment, sooner we get her into shelter and get her looked at the better"

"Where're we gonna find shelter?" Rogue asked

"Right there kid" Logan nodded to a spot just off the road they had been running along. It took Rogue a second to see what Logan was talking about, but sure enough, nearly hidden by vegetation barely standing was a Timber Mill.

_STORY NOTES_

_Powers: There has been a lot of debate over the episode 'Spykecam' where Rogue touches Sabretooth and she mutates to look more like him. Up until this point Rogue had never taken the physical attributes of someone she touched before and many comic book purists disliked it. Personally I couldn't care less but in an effort to stay true to the original story line have kept Rogue's 'mutation'_

_Fire Blanket and First aid kits: I don't know about the rest of the world but New Zealand has very strict workplace safty guidilines, every workplace must be equipped with a fire blanket, a fire retardant peice of material which is used to smother fires, and a fully stocked up to date first aid kit._

_Backstory: Sabretooth's backstory is pretty hazy, probably because there's so many versions of it. The one I'm sure most of us know is the one portrayed in X-men Origins Wolverine E.G Victor Creed born in Canada James Howlett's older half brother. But the one I've used is the older story. Sabretooth's parents treated him like an animal keeping him locked up in their basement, they even tried to declaw him, for more info I suggest looking him up on Wikipedia._

_Okay people that's all for now. I'm really sorry it took me this long to get this out, it's been a hard year for me, family tragidies, technical difficulties (Say hello to the first upload on my new laptop) and sheer laziness on my part, I'll try to be more regular with my uploads in future. Also while I have your attention would anyone be interested in Betaing for me. I'm sure you've notcied how terrible my spelling and punctuation is._

_Feel free to tell me what you thought I accept critism just please be constructive and polite. _

_Ari Out_


	4. Chapter 4

Childhood Innocence

_Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution_

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What had once been the door was boarded shut. The planks were rotting and easily torn away so Logan could shoulder it open. It all but snapped off its rusted hinges under the weight of the mutant's adamantium-enhanced skeleton.

Inside, the building was bare. Weak light filtered in from several holes in the roof, and the walls capturing specks of dust in their beams, making ghosts and revealing rotting floorboards. Empty spaces, where once upon a time machines must have existed but had long been stripped away, left an empty husk of a structure. It was no warmer than the outside world; it was barely separated from, and only slightly drier.

The smell of damp wood with a distinct undertone of long-gone sawdust, assaulted Rogue's still slightly enhanced senses as she crossed the threshold. The floorboards creaked eerily under her feet as she gingerly made her way across them, careful to test each spot before she fully put her weight on it.

"Place's been abandoned for a while," she said.

"Turn o' the century mill. Machinery was probably stripped for the metal durin' the war and without that, isn't much point to the place," Logan answered.

"So it's over a hundred years old! But you could fix it up good as new, if ya wanted! Just patch the walls up some."

"Built things ta last back then, now come give me a hand here," Logan explained with an odd smile on his face that quickly faded as he turned his attention back to Kitty. Rogue scurried over and set the medical kit down gently before taking off the snow jacket and spreading it out across the old floorboards lengthways. Logan gently lay Kitty down on it. She gave a whimper of pain and her eyes scrunched together. At her sides, her hands clenched into fists.

"Rogue, keep her out," Logan ordered briskly as Kitty's eyes began darting about under her eyelids and her breathing rate increased. Rogue quickly placed her gloveless hand against Kitty's forehead. For the briefest of second a burst of white light, not unlike a the flash of a camera, ripped through their joined forms before Rogue snatched her hand back, then Kitty was silent and still once more.

Rogue stumbled back, arms across her midsection. Pain exploded in her gut, searing out across her torso. She choked on her sobs as she sunk to her knees, her eyes blurry with tears. It hurt so much.

"Kid, snap out of it," A far off voice said "It ain't real, just a memory; let it go."

She felt a hand on her shoulder, more solid and real-feeling than the pain in her abdomen. Rogue blinked. Logan's face swam into focus before hers.

"It hurts," she said

"Let it go, Stripes. I need yer help here," Logan said, his voice firm and steady. Swallowing a sob and nodding, Rogue straightened herself up.

She wanted to break down into tears. Kitty hurt so much and she had been so scared. Rogue wanted to deal with it like Kitty would; like any six-year-old would. But she couldn't because she wasn't Kitty, no matter how much she felt like her. She was Rogue and Logan needed her. She took her place next to the first-aid kit beside Kitty and began to dig through it.

Rogue often imagined her mind being something like an apartment building, where she shared her own conscious with the consciousness' of all the people she had absorbed. They all had their own little rooms where she could tuck most of them away; every now and again she absorbed an aggressive personality that refused to be repressed without a fight. But she could go visit them if she wanted. Rogue never forgot anything she absorbed. She remembered every memory like it was hers. She remembered giving birth, being high, fighting on D-Day, but right now she remembered being a doctor.

And she was nervous because she had only been a general practitioner; people had come to her with tummy aches and coughs that refused to go away, she had never gone anywhere near trauma and surgery, truth be told she had only ever become a doctor because her parents pushed her to. But she did know her way around a first aid kit. And she remembered being a soldier. Something that Logan also remembered.

He was currently using his claws to cut the fire blanket he had wrapped around Kitty. Blood had started to seep through the cloth in blossoming patches of red. Her shirt was soaked with it and Logan wasted no time in cutting that away from her. In some distant part of her head, Rogue wondered what Kitty was going to wear until it got warmer. She only had one long-sleeved shirt, but then she remembered that that really wasn't important right now.

What was important were the grizzly wounds in Kitty's abdomen. As a soldier, Rogue had seen lots of wounds before; gunshot wounds mainly, but she could almost remember what bayonet and various other stab wounds looked like. This was nothing like that. Kitty had five perfectly round finger-sized holes in her. Some part of Rogue that wasn't really her, wanted to stick her own finger in one, just to see what it felt like, but the rest of her wanted to be sick. Blood gurgled and swelled up in each hole, making it impossible to see just how deep the wounds were. But Rogue knew from the pain Kitty had experienced, they were deep.

"Okay kid, give me the saline," Logan said, his voice was heavy and his entire posture spoke of a man that simply wanted to collapse under everything. Rogue did as she was told, tearing the plastic top off each sealed tube of the liquid as she passed it to him. Logan worked without finesse, simply pouring each tube into the holes, causing the blood to dilute, overflow and run down Kitty's sides in streaks of pink.

"Alright, you're gonna need to do this next part." Logan said, taking the final tube of salt water and soaking a cloth Rogue had liberated from its sterile packaging with it.

"I need ya to clean inside, get some gloves on." Once again, Rogue obeyed as she pulled a pair of white examination gloves from the medical kit and put them on. They were too big for the hands of a child and the tips of the fingers folded over themselves pathetically. She took the cloth from Logan and steeled herself.

Her fingers were small and slender. Well bony really, but slender sounded better, that's what Kitty had always said. The gloves however, made Rogue feel slightly clumsy as she grasped the cloth and delicately pushed it into the largest hole. Putting your fingers inside someone felt weird. It was warm and not quite as squishy as one would think, not that that surprised Rogue, there wasn't enough on Kitty to be squishy. She couldn't quite help but think, as she twisted the cloth around in a motion that was similar to trying to dry the very bottom of a glass, about how strange this would feel to Kitty. It was a good thing she was unconscious because Rogue couldn't imagine it being very pleasant. She moved on to the next hole.

She cleaned each one as diligently as she could, running the cloth against the sides of each puncture and twisting it at the bottom. When she was done, Logan propped Kitty up slightly so Rogue could wrap bandages around her midsection. The injured girl's head lolled back against Logan's chest and he fought the urge to cradle her. When the bandages had been secured, he lay her back down on her thoroughly ruined snow jacket and removed his own leather jacket to drape across her like a blanket.

Night was settling in and the air, which had previously been nothing more than sharply chilled, steadily sunk to a bone-numbing temperature. Rogue and Logan positioned themselves at Kitty's sides, hugging her as tightly as they dared. Rogue gratefully buried as much of herself as she could under Logan's jacket, reaching an arm across Kitty's chest to rest reassuringly on the older mutant's shoulder.

"We're gonna be alright, right?" she asked eventually, her voice grating through the darkness.

"Yeah Kid, we're gonna be alright."

"Even Kitty?" Dampness on her cheeks informed Rogue she was crying. For a long time, the only sound came from Logan's deep breaths before her.

"Even Kitty."

"You promise?" Rogue didn't know why, but she was suddenly afraid to relinquish her grip on the smaller girl. Logan didn't answer. Rogue held Kitty tighter, waiting for each rise and fall of her chest with baited breath. She remembered with sudden clarity, the exact shade of washed-out gray the sky had been just earlier that day, and in an odd sort of out-of-body way, how much younger the Rogue under that sky had been than the Rogue under this one.

"Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?

Sky won't snow and the sun won't shine

Hard to tell the nighttime from the day

You're losin' all your highs and lows

Ain't it funny how the feelin' goes away?"

She whispered into Kitty's cheek, her voice sounding like little more than a hiss of consonants. She wished all of a sudden she could touch that cheek. There was something about Kitty that always seemed so soft, like she was held together with candy floss, and now she seemed just as delicate, like the dampness in the air could cause her to shrivel up and collapse in on herself.

Then Rogue felt a bit angry at Kitty. How could she have let herself get hurt, didn't she know how much the family needed her? What were they going to do if she died, huh? What were they going to do? This feeling didn't last long and Rogue wasn't even entirely sure why she had felt it. She wasn't sure about anything anymore. In the dark, it seemed like the world had stopped existing around them.

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_STORY NOTES_

_Stripping: I don't know if this would have happened so much in America but in Europe and britian during the Second World War mills and factories were stripped of Metal that could be used to make weapons and ammunition._

_First Aid: Don't take first aid advice from me. Anyone with first Aid training will tell you that when it comes it stab wounds you are to do little more than make the victim comfortable and stem the bleeding. Ypu are NEVER to attempt to clean the wound or remove or insert anything from or into the wound. Of course most First Aid is preformed with the idea that help is on the way while Rogue and Logan are on their own._

_Field Medicine: In X-men Evolution Logan says that it isn't up until After World War Two where his memories start to get fuzzy which means he must have the memory of fighting in both the First World and Civil Wars and must have picked up something in the way of Field Medicine. I really wish X-men Evolution had continued on to a fifth season word of god has it there would have been an episode focusing on Logan's past where his name would be revealed to be James 'Jim' Logan._

_That's all for now feel free to tell me what you thought I accept critisim just please be constructive and polite._

_And now everyone give a big round of applause to my new Beta reader Rogueslove22. From now on she will be making me writting legible to all those who cringe at my terrible grammar_

_Ari Out!_


	5. Chapter 5

Childhood Innocence Part five

_Hello? Is this thing on? Oh, there we go. Hello dear readers (if you're even still there I totally understand if you're not I mean my updates are sporadic at best) Anyway I'm back two years later with the latest chapter of Childhood innocence. A lot has happened in two years including but not limited to, my getting a job (yay!) my laptop dying twice, an earthquake (no joke) and an ongoing family illness (which is definately no joke) Anyway I know I'm late with this chapter and I sincerely apologise. So lets get this show on the road_

_Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution_

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Rogue dreamt of Kitty.

They were lying on the living room floor in a rundown apartment they had lived in for seven months. It had been the longest time Rogue had ever remembered spending anywhere; she had almost begun to believe they would live there forever. Above a takeaway joint on a block of shops that had seen better economic days around the 70's the apartment had been small with rooms that could have been mistaken for broom cupboards and was fitted with appliances that required a good thump to start. There hadn't been a TV but that was okay because tucked away in a musty linen closet Rogue had found an electric record player and a stack of old records. They had all been in French but that was half the fun of them.

Every night that Logan worked late shifts Rogue and Kitty would drag their mattresses off their beds and into the living room where it was warmer and the light bulbs that lit the shops signs twinkled outside the windows like stars come to earth. Rogue would heat up milk and brown sugar on the stove for them to drink and then they would put a record on and make a game out of trying to guess what the singers were crooning about.

"I bet her boyfriend's being a jerk. He probably forgot her birthday or got her a stupid present" Kitty would say about a sad song

"Nah "Rogue would reply "She's upset cause her poodle choked on a croissant"

And then they would kick their legs in the air giggling uncontrollably.

"What do you think they're singing about?" Kitty asked now.

"I don't hear anything" Rogue said

"I think it's a love song. He loves her but she doesn't love him; so he's sad" Kitty continued.

"Kitty?" Rogue turned to the younger girl.

"Hmm?" Her hand was drifting lazily across the burnt orange shag pile carpet and although her gaze was fixed solidly on the mouldy ceiling she appeared to be looking through it rather than at it a strange little half smile that seemed too old for her on her face.

"Aren't ya hurting any?"

"No why?"

"Cause you got stabbed; kinda"

Kitty's hand stilled, her odd little smile faded and then so did she.

"Get up"

Logan's voice was rough and it cut through Rogue's dream with the same savageness his claws cut through everything else. Startled awake and feeling immediately displaced Rogue sat bolt upright Logan's jacket fell away from her chest to slump in her lap. She glanced around wildly trying to take in her surroundings.

"Whas'it?" Rogue asked her voice thick with sleep as she wondered in her still muddled state why she was next to a furnace.

Then her mind caught up and she realised that it wasn't a furnace she was next to, it was Kitty. Her breaths were punctuated with small whimpers and she felt like she was burning up beneath her skin. But she was there. Rogue shrugged Logan's jacket away from her lap and repositioned it over Kitty before scrambling to her feet and over to Logan tugging the gloves that had fallen down to her forearms back up past her elbows as she went.

Logan moved away from her with a fluid grace usually attributed to great predators sniffing as he went.

"Logan what's wrong?" Rogue asked her voice cracking with misuse and worry.

"Someone's coming" Logan growled. Rogue's stomach dropped to her knee's.

"Who? Can we run" She cast her gaze wildly around the mill as if the darkness would part like a curtain and reveal a safe exit. Rogue remembered the feeling of stark isolation she had fallen asleep too, how could she have been so stupid to think that the world would leave them alone this time.

The world never left them alone. That was why they had left the apartment of roses and records. That was why they left every apartment and motel room they had ever lived in, the one that had smelt of damp and pot, the one that Logan had had to tape all the windows up in so heat wouldn't leak out, the one that had a cat flap no one had ever bothered to nail down so there were constant strays. Rogue had woken up one night in that apartment to find a ginger tom biting her nose. It had been three years since then and she still swore her nose had tiny teeth marks in it, you could see them if you looked closely.

At the moment though all Rogue could see was Kitty.

They couldn't run.

"It's him isn't it? Sabretooth, he found us." Violent shivers ran through Rogue's body before she could stop them, for a second she thought her legs would collapse under her but she forced her limbs to steady themselves.

"No, it ain't him"

"Then who? How many?"

Logan sniffed the air again and scowled.

"Logan tell me"

"Don't know how many Stripes, Having a hard time picking up a scent, winds against us. Can't barely hear anything neither. More'n one though"

"What are we gonna do?"

Logan sighed deeply and turned to Rogue. His enhanced senses making it so that the dark that surrounded them did little to obscure his vision. She looked terrified, her limbs were stiffened in an attempt to keep them from shaking and her eyes watered with tears she was struggling to keep at bay. It was easy sometimes to think of Rogue as being older than she was, she always acted so tough and hard enough to take whatever life threw at her. But now she looked like an eight year old girl. A scared eight year old girl.

"We aren't going to do anything Rogue. I am"

Rogue swore her heart stopped in her chest for just a second.

"Wh. What do you mean?" Her voice rasped and she was afraid it would die in her throat, petering out into a grating breath. Logan's face was a collection of harsh lines as he knelt next to Kitty and pulled the leather jacket which had been dislodged during her sleep back across her shaking body tucking the collar under her chin. His lips brushed ever so slightly against her forehead.

"I need you to stay here and look after Kitty"

"What are you going to do?"

"Make sure she stays warm and change her dressings if you have too..."

"Logan!"

The older mutant looked up and for a second Rogue swore she saw tears glimmer in his eyes but then the moment passed and Logan stood.

"I'm going to take care of what's coming"

"Y-you mean..?"

"Look after your sister until I get back" Logan said his voice was heavy and his tone brusque. Rogue felt as though her feet were rooted into the rotting floorboards as Logan made his way towards the door.

"You, you are coming back though right?" Rogue had never felt smaller in her life as her voice drifted through the darkness, she knew Logan would be able to see her with his enhanced senses but she didn't even try to stand up straight and cover the lost look on her face or hide the tears that were building in her eyes.

Logan sighed deeply and turned from the door his boots sounded rhythmically against the floor as he made his way over to Rogue. Logan had never been tall, well at least he didn't remember being anything other than short but now he seemed to tower above Rogue. For the longest time the only sounds that filled the air were Kitty's whimpers and Rogue's tiny sniffles as she tried her hardest not to let her tears slip past her eyes. And then there was another sound; the clinking sound of metal. Rogue looked up as Logan gently took her gloved hand in his and draped his dog tags across her palm before closing her fingers over them.

"I'll be back for this" He said. And then with a few heavy footfalls across the floor he was gone.

Rogue didn't move at first, it was easy to pretend Logan was still next to her that way. But then she couldn't anymore so she slipped the dog tags over her head pulled her gloves back up past her elbows. She straightened up and trying her hardest to keep her mouth from quivering she marched over to Kitty.

She had to be strong now. Kitty needed her and Rogue wasn't about to let her or Logan down. She knelt down next to Kitty and tried to tuck the edges of Logan's jacket under her shivering form like a bedspread but it didn't work so well, Kitty kept squirming and making tiny whimpery moans every time Rogue's hands got anywhere close to her midsection and the jacket arms just wouldn't fold right so in the end she gave up. She put the medical kit at her side and having nothing else to do sat down as close to Kitty as she dared. She wasn't sure what to do then; she pulled her knees up to her chest but then put them back down, she thought about finding Kitty's hand in the darkness so she could hold it but she would have to pat around the younger girl and was too scared to in case she touched her wounds so she gave up on that. She wasn't really sure what holding Kitty's hand would do anyway, it wouldn't make her hurt less. So in the end Rogue just sat there waiting for Logan to come back like he said he would.

Rogue wrapped a hand around the dog tags that lay cool against her chest. Logan had told her about his dog tags enough times for her to know what was so special about them; they were the only thing he had from before he lost his memories. They didn't hold much in the way of knowledge of his past life in fact instead of name, rank, blood type and religion the only thing stamped on the metal was the word 'Wolverine'. Neither Logan nor Rogue, who had his memories, knew what it meant but it must have been important in some way. Rogue couldn't think of any reason to have dog tags that only said 'Wolverine' that wasn't important.

She grasped the tags tighter as the wind picked up around the mill and its icy fingers reached through every crack in the wood. Rogue was about to check and make sure all of Kitty was still under Logan's jacket when a howl ripped through the sound of the wind. She sat up in shock the dog tags falling back against her chest. That had been Logan, he had made the exact sound earlier in the cafe when Sabretooth had attacked him.

Rogue was on her feet and tearing at her gloves before she could even think about it. Her clumsy and desperate attempts to be rid of the material leaving angry red lines down her arms in the wake of her fingernails. Outside the mill roars howls and crashing thuds all vied against each other to be heard over the wind. Logan was fighting something out there.

Logan had told her to stay put and to look after Kitty but Rogue wasn't thinking about that anymore. She wasn't thinking about anything anymore. She wasn't even really Rogue anymore. A hundred psyche's worth of adrenaline was surging through her system overriding any part of her mind that could still be considered Rogue. Her aggressive and passive personalities clashed with each other to determine whether she should fight or run. Unsurprisingly the aggressive psyche's won out and Rogue's course became clear.

She sprinted to the Mills door but just before she reached it an almighty gust of wind rose up and tore the rotting boards away. For the briefest of moments as lightning forked across the sky illuminating the form a woman her psyches were thrown and she was just plain Rogue again.

She was beautiful but strangely dressed in a dark one piece suit with a cape that swirled in the winds that otherwise left her undisturbed. And for a moment all Rogue could do was look at her entirely in shock. But then she spoke and the spell was broken.

"Child we..." Her voice was gentle and soothing but before she could finish speaking Rogue savagely grabbed her bare forearm.

Light ripped through Rogue's body as the winds lost their previous sense of direction and whistled through the trees wildly almost it seemed trying to pry her hand away but then they suddenly stopped as the women sunk into unconsciousness at Rogue's feet.

Then the world exploded. That was the only way Rogue could describe it. All of a sudden she could see everything, _everything._ And not only see but feel too. She could feel the clouds all the way up in the sky and the sun even though it had long set over this part of the world. She could see the wind coiled like ropes at her fingertips and everywhere. All those squiggly lines on the T.V weather maps suddenly made sense because she could _feel_ them. The cold air bearing down from the north with the last snow of the season that wouldn't make it here until the day after tomorrow. Warmer currents from the south that would never quite make it this far up the country. And it was hers.

She was the storm.

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_STORY NOTES_

_Suprisingly after all this time I got nothin' this chapter is note free! _

_Anyway that's all for now sorry this took so long to get up, I hope you enjoyed it and rest assured I have no intention of giving up on this story so though updates may be far and few between I will continue on._

_I accept critism just please be constructive and polite._


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